The Order 1886 developer once courted by Sony hit by mass layoffs

The Order 1886 was a PS4 exclusive that failed to spark a Sony acquisition for developer Ready At Dawn, who has since seen mass layoffs under current owner Meta.

Collecting The Order 1886 trophies took all of six hours, but the gorgeous and highly-stylised PS4 exclusive third-person shooter has certainly lived longer in gamers' memories. Now eight years after PlayStation failed to pick up the game's developer, Ready at Dawn has seen significant staff layoffs under current owner Meta. Oh, what we wouldn't do for a sequel to the underrated gem that could have made it to the best PS4 games!

The Order 1886

Sony missed the Ready At Dawn boat, now Meta sinks it

Developer Ready At Dawn has just suffered a huge loss of a third of its staff after its parent company Meta (of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg fame) has made a round of layoffs. Gamedeveloper has surmised from various employee tweets that the layoffs at Ready At Dawn and Downpour Interactive include a lot of the chief staff, possibly including some of the co-founders and studio heads.

For Meta, Ready At Dawn has been developing games for Meta's Oculus Rift VR unit since 2018 with the Lone Echo series. PlayStation gamers will be most familiar with the team for their work on the PSP God of War games Chains of Olympus (2008) and Ghost of Sparta (2010). In terms of playing the God of War games in order, this pair of PSP and later PS3 ports are actually prequels to the main trilogy.

From there, the team progressed to the PS4 exclusive The Order 1886 (2015). It is a steampunk third-person shooter set in industrial London with strong fantasy and horror elements. Sony had concentrated on the game as one of the main PS4 exclusives to watch out for, putting a lot of effort into marketing. However, on release, its short 6-hour run time became a stick used to beat the game with, as well as the fact it was rather shallow gameplay-wise.

However, it very much felt like a proof of concept for a gorgeously crafted world with fascinating lore and has since become something of a cult classic. The weaponry was fun, the 'Arthur's Knights in a new era' thing was interesting, and the aesthetic with the grain film was truly something unique. Graphically, it still holds up even now. Indeed, it fit so seamlessly into Sony's catalogue of exclusives that, at the time, it looked like Ready At Dawn would be snapped up as a new PlayStation Studios.

The Order 1886

Indeed, the evidence was there. Ready At Dawn had been entrusted with God of War games and a massive PS4 exclusive. Sony also used to work with developers for a few games before picking them up, like Sucker Punch after the Sly series and the first of the inFamous games, or Naughty Dog after the Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter series. Surely a deal would be on the table for Ready At Dawn? Well, it wasn't to be. The Order 1886 wasn't received well and Meta stepped in to buy the team after another unsuccessful game in Deformers (2017).

Now, with these layoffs, it looks like the studio is being sadly scaled back again and the hopes of a sequel to deliver on The Order 1886's potential disappear with it. Do you also wonder what a life with Ready At Down under Sony would look like? Did you enjoy The Order 1886 as much as we did back in the day? Let Sean, Lee, and I know in the comments below!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like Horizon, The Last of Us, God of War, and Death Stranding 2 using experience from years of playing PlayStation games. He also covers PS Plus and trophy news, as well as his favorite games — The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed, and some indie gems — before an evening swim.